Reaching Your Customers On Twitter
Posted on 20. Oct, 2009 by Trond in Twitter
Social media has been around for years. Programs like IRC and AOL chat have hosted many a conversation, facilitated thousands of people making contact with each other and are the grandparents of social media as we know it today.
Twitter, a micro-blogging service whereby participants share links and converse in less than 140 characters, is receiving approximately 20 million hits to the site per month since April of 2009 and shows no sign of slowing down. Social networks, according to THAT Agency, are the fourth most popular online activity. Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace are the most popular networks and are growing daily.
As a company, big or small, how do you fit in? How do you harness all this power of Twitter at your fingertips to improve your business?
It’s both simple and complicated. The thing to keep in mind is there’s a time commitment involved when building a reputation on Twitter. Internet people are savvy about marketing, and if you approach social media in the wrong way, you can do more damage than good to your business. Therefore, building a brand recognition or loyalty takes a commitment on the part of company attempting to use social media.
Think of Twitter as meeting people in a social setting for the first time. No one likes or pays positive attention to the guy who arrives at a social event and starts hawking his wares before introducing himself. The benefits to getting to know people first are many – learning about your target market, making solid connections, and getting a feel for the needs of your customer are just a few.
But, getting to know people is just the first part of the puzzle. You need to invite people to get to know you. This doesn’t mean tweeting about subjects that are intensely personal, but what are you about? What subjects interests you, move you? What does your company or brand represent?
Before you can spread the word about your product or service, it’s important to engage in relevant conversation. By participating in pertinent exchanges and offering helpful information using Twitter, people will come to see you as an expert in your field and will turn to you when they have questions or concerns regarding your particular area of expertise. In return, your message will be passed on to their followers, and grow exponentially. Word-of-mouth has always been an important part of any advertising campaign, and Twitter is the ultimate in internet word-of-mouth.
Also, remember there are two sides to the coin. Negative feedback will travel even faster than positive feedback on Twitter, so it’s in your company’s best interest to concentrate on a pleasant attitude. It takes time to build a friendly and helpful voice on Twitter, but only minutes to destroy it with a negative exchange. Think before you tweet!
When you have built a reputation for useful, valuable information, you’ve built trust. This is a key component to reaching thousands of potential clients or customers on Twitter.
Related posts:
Download my latest book now!
Recent Comments